by Gorg Huff
“You’re right, Captain. But at this point we can’t even be sure it was intentional.”
Burgin snorted.
“I didn’t say it was an accident, but it might have been. In any case, I don’t see what you expect me to do about it. You’re the one with the ships.”
“That Cordoba-Davis woman, did you warn . . .”
“No, Captain.” Now Andre let frost cover his voice. “I didn’t warn Grand Stockholder Cordoba-Davis. I had my orders and I followed them. I assume that Captain Gold didn’t want to go back to Alenbie, or simply that the circumstances made him nervous enough to want to be elsewhere. And all I can recommend is that you send a ship after them. I will inform Uncle Julio that you missed them.”
The look on Burgin’s face was priceless and Andre cut the comm. Good luck, Tanya. It looks like you might even be around to collect the one I owe you now.
Chapter 26
The wing missile, or shield missile, changed the specifics of deep space combat, but not the broad outline. If the battle isn’t next to a big rock like a planet, deep space combat is open field combat. Hiding is hard and rarely successful. As a tactician, I disapprove of that. It leads to pounding matches with outcomes less influenced by skill than by the size of the weapons. The wing missile was simply a better weapon.
A History of Deep Space Warfare, Tanya Cordoba-Davis, Standard Year: 683
Location: cul de sac off Franklin, Jump 46,026,361
Standard Date: 11 10 631
Danny sat up on his couch in the lounge where most of the crew were gathered and signaled Pan that she could open the pantry and let the king of Franklin out. The pantry was a food processing unit in hydroponics, and John Gabriel was the only crew member who knew about him.
A couple of minutes later, Danny said, “The mid C needs a new bearing pad on the rear coupler. I think that takes precedence.”
“I am more . . .” Chuck Givens started, just as the king arrived in the lounge, complaining about the smell of the pantry.
“Nothing wrong with the smell of my pantry,” John said. “That’s just what processed foss oil smells like.”
“More like what fossils smell like,” said King Edward. “Captain Gold, now that the need for secrecy is past, I will expect better quarters.”
“Life is full of disappointments, Eddy,” Danny said, looking first at the king and then around the room to gauge the reactions. He knew the kid lost his family less than two weeks ago, and he understood that Eddy was scared and confused. On the other hand, Eddy was an arrogant little snot with a sense of entitlement that was truly monumental, and Danny had his own sociopathic tendencies that made it hard for him to empathize. Especially with people who annoyed him. “How are we fixed for cubage, Pan?”
“We can put him in eighteen, Captain.”
“Him who?” asked Tanya with a sniff. “Who is this, Captain?”
Danny waved grandly at the kid. “His Majesty King Edward VI of Franklin.” Danny looked at Eddy. “Assuming you’re going to keep Edward as your reign name?”
“He’s a fugitive,” Givens said.
Danny nodded to Givens. “Or a refugee. Depends on who you ask, but, yes, according to Tanya’s school chum, he is no doubt a fugitive.”
“I am the rightful king of Franklin.”
Danny happened to be looking at Tanya Cordoba-Davis when His Majesty made that pronouncement, and the rolling of her eyes made Danny like her better.
“You’ve put us all in danger by bringing him, Captain,” Tanya said.
“Maybe, but I doubt it’s much more danger than we would have been in anyway. Not if your guess about what Admiral Chin was up to is right.”
“I suspect that Captain Gold is correct,” said Professora Stuard. “And turning him over to the Drakes may gain us some credit with them.”
Robert Schmitz laughed out loud. “Just where did this habit you have of picking up strays come from? I thought you Cybrants were supposed to be utterly lacking in empathy.”
Danny looked at Robert, hooked a thumb at Goldgok, and said, “I fell in with evil companions and they are corrupting me.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Eddy knew they were laughing at him, and in that moment he hated them one and all. It was also all he could do to keep from crying. He forced dignity and said, “If you will direct me to my rooms, I will attempt to wash off the stink of that pantry.”
He turned away and followed Pandora’s directions to the personnel quarters. And could hear snickering as he left.
Location: Cul de sac off Franklin, Jump 46,026,361
Standard Date: 11 13 631
Pan was scanning the area, with Danny, Tanya, Chuck, Petra, Goldvokx, Goldfax, and Goldtak all hooked into the net. Even King Edward, Sara, and Jenny were hooked in, for all the good it was doing. They weren’t finding much of anything. As a rule, jumps were both larger and farther apart in the big dark than insystem.
“How much longer are we going to keep at this?” complained King Edward.
It seemed to be what he did best, Jenny noted. She’d been prepared to be in awe because he was a king. But the way he treated John, and the way Captain Danny, the professor, and Tanya responded to him washed away that notion.
After Tanya came about, Jenny switched her goal in life from master trader to warship captain. And Tanya was clearly unimpressed by King Edward. “Would you like to go back to Franklin?” Jenny sneered. “We could always turn you over to Chairman Chin.”
“They would blow us out of space before you got the chance,” Eddy said.
“We may end up having to try that,” Danny said, and waited for the expression on Eddy’s face to change before continuing. “Not the part about turning Eddy over to the chairman. But if we don’t find another jump in a few days, we will need to seriously consider slipping back into Franklin and taking another route out.”
“Is that wise?” asked Tanya. “They are likely to be watching that chunk of space. And while I’m sure you’ve worked up some grape, I don’t think you want to trade shots with a warship.” She looked directly at Danny and added, “Not unless you can really toss wings around.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Danny looked at Tanya, then around the full lounge. There were expressions of shock on most of the faces. “Well, if I could, I’m not sure I’d want to blurt it out.”
Jimmy Dugan was in the power room, looking at the fusion rates, but Fred was standing at the coffee station, looking confused. Robert’s little girls were looking up from the game they were playing. The professor was in his lab and the professora was in her room, correlating linguistic samples from Franklin. Goldgok was running an analysis of prices in Franklin System. Which left way too many people having heard Tanya’s remark.
“Maybe not,” Tanya said. “But we’ve been dancing around whatever it is for long enough. If you wanted to keep it secret, Rocks and Nets wasn’t a great strategy.”
Danny looked around again, and cursed himself for a fool. He hadn’t figured on Tanya making a public announcement. Eddy would give the Drakes the information about the secret weapon in a heartbeat in exchange for regaining his kingdom. John Gabriel, who couldn’t keep secrets when he drank, was having a snack. Givens was honorable, if irritable, but where would his honor take him? Petra was probably all right. She seemed to like Robert and the girls. Just telling her that mentioning the new weapon would put Robert in danger would probably be enough. And Fred was a good kid. He’d keep his mouth shut. “Even if that’s true, this was probably not the best time to bring it up.”
Tanya looked at Danny, her expression belligerent. Then she must have seen something in Danny’s face, because she looked around the room again. While before she was watching for reaction, probably trying to guess who knew, now she was looking guilty. She looked Danny in the eye and said, “Perhaps you’re right, Captain. My apologies.” She looked at Eddy and her expression hardened for a moment. “And to you, Your Majesty.” She bowed formally to Eddy. “For putting your
life at risk.”
Up to then Eddy’s face had an expression of incomprehension that was just starting to edge into surmise. But at Tanya’s comment, his face went blank and he turned to face Danny.
A part of Danny’s mind was busy cursing himself for underestimating Tanya Cordoba-Davis yet again, while the rest of him was getting ready for Eddy to draw on him. Tanya was playing the situation. She knew Cybrant customs and, by now, how much of a Cybrant Eddy was. She was pointing out that if Danny was going to put the genie back in the bottle, he would have to spill even more blood, including Eddy’s.
“This is not Cybrant,” Pan’s voice rang out, “and the captain may not be challenged. Any attempt to draw on the captain will be considered mutiny. The mutineer will be executed, successful or not.”
Eddy tensed even more for just an instant, then relaxed. Slowly, he turned to Tanya Cordoba-Davis and returned her bow with a shallower one of his own. “Your apology is accepted, Grand Stockholder. I realize that you had your own goals and couldn’t concern yourself with whether or not I was endangered.”
“Right out of the handbook,” Danny said. “But in case anyone is wondering, let me reiterate. This is not Cybrant and dueling is not allowed on the Pandora.”
“What?” asked Petra. “I don’t understand.”
Danny looked over at the incredibly young-looking ensign and in that moment she looked rather younger than Jenny Starchild.
Sara spoke up. “It’s part of the quaint customs of Danny’s homeworld . . . and my parents’. Its official designation is ‘culling by combat,’ though it’s often called ‘culling for manners.’ I assume, Danny, that you’re still working on whether you have to kill me and Eddy? But what about Tanya here? She’s a grand stockholder, after all. And Mr. Givens . . . and, well, just who can you trust?”
“The Parthians,” Danny said. “They are my clan, so I can trust them. The professor and professora were in on it, and so were Hirum, Robert and Jenny.”
“I knew too,” Angi said. “But I knew enough to keep my mouth shut,” she added with a look at Tanya that was full of nine-year-old disapproval.
Danny looked at Angi and laughed. “How did you know, Angi?”
“I figured it out.”
“Well, I haven’t,” Fred said. “Do you mean like in the game we’ve been playing? But that’s impossible.”
“What game and why do you assume it’s impossible?” Sara asked. “Please recall, I just boarded at Franklin.”
Danny looked around. “Go ahead, Pan. Fill everyone in. It’s too late for any other course.”
So Pan did, complete with vids of the battle with the Bonaventure and the earlier battle with the Brass Hind. After checking with Danny privately, Pan didn’t give the specifications of the system. She finished with, “Now that it’s out in the open, there are a number of sims I would like to see run by those of the crew with naval experience. This is still a new weapons system and the tactical doctrines for its use are, at best, poorly worked out.”
Location: Cul de sac out of Franklin
Standard Date: 11 17 631
Chuck watched Gunny Dugan’s cruiser blow into space junk as the shield missiles flew by. Jimmy had dropped his wings to protect his ship from wing interaction, but Tanya had a hunter-nuke right behind the shield missiles, and that blew Jimmy right out of space. Out of his force of ten ships, Chuck Givens had one left. He looked back to the battle and realized he wouldn’t even have that for long. In desperation, he flung round shot at the shield missile.
Then everything blanked and up came Simulation Over. Along with numbers. The numbers meant that the virtual Pandora and the virtual patrol ship that was supporting it had just taken out his squadron while receiving only light damage.
He jerked off his headset and said, “This can’t be right.”
“My question,” Sara said, “is whether Tanya is really that good, or is it the weapons.”
“It’s both,” Eddy said. “Rather, it’s the combination. Commander Cordoba-Davis is an innovative tactician, and the new weapons—aside from the advantage they give her directly—give her scope for those innovations.”
Givens nodded, but not happily. He hadn’t done as well when he did the sim with the shield missiles. He won, even when Tanya officially knew about the shield missiles, but he took a lot more damage.
On the other hand, now that he knew the trick with the shield missile trailed by a hunter-nuke, he could use it too. And unless Tanya kept yet another rabbit up her sleeve, he would take her out. In a way, that was what bothered him the most. He turned to Tanya, and she was just staring into space.
“I need to have a few words with Doctor Frankenstein,” Tanya said.
“Grandpa’s not Frankenstein,” Angi insisted. She had been watching the sim avidly while waiting for her turn to play.
“Tell him that.” Tanya grinned at the girl, got up, and left while Chuck Givens watched and worried.
∞ ∞ ∞
Danny consulted with Pan, and reluctantly decided that they would have to chance going back through the cul de sac jump. “Four days of running sims and looking for more jumps and nothing useful. We won’t be in the Franklin system all that long if we come in at the right vector. They probably won’t even see us.”
Location: Franklin Station 1, System Scan Room
Standard Date: 11 17 631
The beep brought Kirsten Espinosa, the Cordoban scan tech, to the screen. A quick check of her interface pulled up the record. Three and a half hours ago, a ship entered this sector of space. The light reflected off that ship was just reaching Kirsten’s sensors now. Kirsten watched the ship move even as she instructed the computers to analyze the wing flap and plasma flow. By the time it popped out again, forty-seven minutes after it arrived, Kirsten had confirmed that it was indeed the Pandora. She knew that it appeared out of a jump they didn’t know about and disappeared into another jump they didn’t know about.
Kirsten Espinosa was not a fan of the Pandora. It seemed insulting, the way the little free trader waltzed in and out of the Franklin system. Her boss liked it even less.
And the poor captain of the Joseph Buckley—who already got sent on one wild goose chase and was about to be sent on another—was coming to positively hate the Pandora.
Location: Pandora, Franklin Outsystem, side route to Alenbie
Standard Date: 11 18 631
It took six jumps and almost a day in Franklin space to get to an alternate route to Alenbie. But space is big, and by the time the Cordoba squadron knew where to look, Pandora was gone.
Location: Alenbie side route
Standard Date: 11 20 631
Chuck Givens had the watch as Pandora came out of jump three light hours from the third main route jump to Alenbie. They were in a chunk of empty space that—probably—the Cordoba fleet would not be looking at. He shifted the ship and aimed the telescopes. At only three light hours distance, Pandora’s telescopes were good enough to see a Cordoba ship, since they knew where to look. They were just over a light year away from Franklin, and just over six from Alenbie. Chuck checked the screens. They showed no one in the standard route.
Chuck carefully fed plasma to the wings and brought the Pan up to a full standard gravity of acceleration. The next five jumps were far enough off the standard route so that they wouldn’t be seen no matter what they did. Then the two routes would converge. That would be the dangerous time, when they might run into a Cordoba warship.
Chuck didn’t like thinking about being in danger from a Cordoba Spaceforce ship. He looked over at the captain. “You don’t actually know that it was the Cordobas who trashed that Drake cruiser. What we got from it didn’t include anything on the battle at all.”
Captain Gold looked at Chuck and lifted an eyebrow. Chuck felt his face heat. “Well, you don’t.”
“From relative motion, it was likely traveling along the main Alenbie-Franklin jump route, and some time within a week or so of when we found it. If not, i
t would have passed out from between the two jumps on the main route. Given that, and the fact that we ran into a Cordoba squadron investing Franklin, how likely is it that it just happened to be someone else at the same time?”
“Still, we reported the ship. And when we talked to Captain Anderson, he said—well, implied—it wasn’t them.”
“He implied the same thing with me, Chuck, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Probably, he just didn’t trust us with the information. The fact that we found it and reported its destruction might be part of why Admiral Chin decided to arrange an accident for us.”
“We don’t know that he did, Captain. All we have is Tanya’s guess and she has good reason to be bitter. We all do.”
“Maybe. But, to my mind, it’s more likely that the link into the chain is on the Alenbie side of where we found the Kingfisher. That means somewhere up ahead.”
They made the jump and the next, then took another side route. This one came out in the Alenbie outsystem, near a mining facility. The green tar mined there was not essential to making shieldgold, but it did cut about five expensive steps out of a twenty-step process. On their last trip through, they picked up several tons of the stuff.
Location: Contested Space, Alenbie outsystem
Standard Date: 11 27 631
Danny looked at the object on the screen. It was a canister, ten meters long and four across, attached by a two hundred meter cable to a chunk of ice and rock. The whole mess, and mess was the right word, was spinning around. Danny ran a quick calculation. Whoever lived in the canister was living in about one-tenth standard gravity.
He shook his head and had Pan call the place. It took a few seconds for them to get synced then the screen lit with the image of an old miner. “I’m George Benson. Who the heck are you?”